Our Manifestos

At a Digital Strategy Session I ran the other week for a creative agency, one of the management commented that she’d recently been to an advertising conference and felt like she was at a technology show. Her comment was that if an alien had landed at the event, it would have assumed advertising was largely about software calculating small differences in consumer behavior and purchasing patterns. Certainly all very different from the days of the fabled Big Idea, where ad agencies would arrive and unveil the result of their reductive brain-mashing. These days, a lot more attention is paid to the brute-force style analytical approach where the goal is to maximise clicks, fans and followers. Undoubtedly, the apparently revolutionary advantages brought by automated markets trading signals and attention data are highly alluring for CMOs with data-hungry procurement officers breathing down their necks. However, as media companies increasingly morph into software houses and drive the big data agenda forward, it’s very easy for the power of good creative to get lost. Or become confused with innovative data management platforms or whizzy, layered look-a-like and life event targeting techniques. No doubt, it’s all just part of the ebb and flow occurring in media and marketing as the rising tide of digital and networked media continues.

Everyone would like specific answers to their specific digital marketing questions. And ideally they would like them immediately and in a paint-by-numbers format. This is one lesson I have learnt from the four hundred odd Digital Strategy Sessions I have run. Generally, it’s good to give people what they want. Especially, if others are saying they can provide perfectly packaged, specific, actionable, deliverable, measurable strategic plans. However, in my experience – unfortunately - it’s just not feasible. The world of digital is now so vast, fluid and throws up so many challenges – not to mention jargon – that I think it’s best to focus on the landscape and how digital and networked media is changing specific sectors. And how that influences business strategy – if at all. In fact, most marketing folk and brands know this to be true, and understand that the most important aspect of operating in today’s markets remains understanding what consumers (aka people) are doing differently, and how technology is changing their expectations. Along with the tools that let them operate in these new networked media environments. So in the Digital Strategy Sessions that’s what I focus on and, generally, people find it helpful. Even if deep down they really want specific answers to their specific questions. But, hey, don’t we all?

Recently, I’ve been involved with some research studies about how teenagers communicate through digital media. It’s been really interesting to see and hear first hand how the much-fabled digital natives – or in this case mobile natives – manage their burgeoning social lives. As is always the case with technology-led behavior change, there’s much that isn’t new. For instance, the intensity of feeling that occurs as young individuals test out their sense of self and peer-skills - as they always have. However, the tiny behavioural aspects on which the groups are focused can be bewildering. This was illustrated by the power of punctuation within text-based chat on FB Messenger, Whatsapp or Snapchat. For one group I spoke to there was no greater social affront than to be ‘full-stopped’. This merely meant the addition of a full-stop when answering someone in chat mode; but is viewed as the equivalent of turning around and walking away when in a physical conversation. The other notable aspect of such social circles is the multi-channel nature of the group dynamic, where individuals are communicating, goading, joking and gossiping simultaneously across three or four different image sites and chat services. This means that should the dreaded full-stopping ever occur its chilling effect is quickly amplified through and beyond those involved.

Last year was the moment when social channels stopped pretending to be earned or organic and became paid media, as the market was flooded with behavioural targeting options and 'social display' exploded. Increasingly, and somewhat ironically, the only place to now gain organic reach is through search (aka Google in the UK). That said, SEO is also being turned upside-down by the rise of knowledge graphs, entities and the subsequent erosion of keyword influence. Furthermore, display and search are increasingly difficult to view separately as search marketeers call upon audience demographics to augment their keyword intent data. Returning the favour, display advertisers can use keyword data to target their brand images via data management platforms, using groovy new approaches such as content remarketing. Additionally, as vast programmatically-driven markets expand, traditional commercial models also blend. Thus, display marketeers are able to access auction-based models previously associated with search which means turning from CPM to CPC. Welcome to the new world of markets for attention data - or signals. They may seem confusing - but they aren’t going away.

There are certain words used very frequently in marketing meetings that probably mean entirely different things to the individuals sitting around the table. Mobile is one of those words. For some people it means smart phones (but not tablets); for others it means ‘on-the-go’; retailers might be thinking 'in-store'; developers might ponder iOS8 vs Android Lollipop; data-heads may focus on location layers; programmatic fiends may zero in on geo-fencing; while consumers (aka people) might not really make a distinction between one screen and another – it’s all just information. Indeed, Google's data shows that most mobile search is done in the home or at work, as the smartphone is now the first port-of-call that oftens leads to other screens and media. It may be more helpful to think about mobile as the latest stage of computing. This is hardly a radical idea – a quick peek at any analytics tool over the last few years makes that trend clear. However, prepare for further confusion as the terribly-named Internet Of Things takes hold with sensors built into cars, toys, clothes, shelves and even medicine. Increasingly, it only makes sense to talk about specific usage cases for individual sectors and categories. Or in other words - insights. Which is what marketing has always been about.

The rise of privacy as an online issue is creating the greatest challenges to brands and marketing. Once again, it’s interesting because these issues are not primarily about technology, but consumers' (aka people’s) views about what they feel comfortable with. In some cases, this means people don’t want to hand over any information at all. For example, in the case of brand driven communities that rise and almost immediately fall. In other cases, the exchange is almost immediately recognised as a good deal and the users flood in and happily hand over very private details. Whatsapp is probably the most striking example of all in recent years. Prior to its launch the idea of handing over your phone book and contact list to an anonymous corporation may have seemed beyond the pale. However, all it took was the promise of free SMS, hardly a gigantic offer on the face of it, and the users flooded in. Neither did its acquisition by Facebook change that. The exchange was still seen as sound.

In the Digital Strategy Sessions I run people arrive with a great variety of different ideas, problems and views on digital marketing and the digital world. Unsurprisingly, the larger the group the more varied the views, issues and concerns; so when it comes to groups of sixty or seventy, there’s always a real melting pot of outlooks. For example, the term digital strategy itself is very open to debate. Personally speaking, it means aligning digital investment with real business outcomes. However, for others it means the correct blend of digital tools or analytical-based targets. I don’t think there’s any clear or perfect view as the digital world is so fluid and drives consumer behavior in different directions in different sectors. So, particularly with larger groups, the purpose of the Digital Strategy Sessions is to raise and understand the broad issues that are creating changes in the marketing mix and how they affect overall marketing strategy in specific markets.

One of the most common problems that people raise with me in the digital strategy sessions I run is the difficulty of cutting through the blizzard of jargon that is constantly being created by technological innovation. I try and raise the issue in a light hearted way by showing a slide of Alice In Wonderland talking to Humpty Dumpty. In the image Humpty says to Alice, 'When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less'. Alice replies, 'The question is whether you can make words mean so many different things'. 'The question is', Humpty answers, 'which is to be master – that’s all'. I think we’ve all met people with views similar to Humpty who use digital speak to confuse rather than enlighten others – sometimes with an eye on becoming the ‘master’. In my view, it’s better to be like Alice who is happy to ask questions in plain English and eventually walks away unimpressed by Humpty’s slippery words.

A lot is made of the differences and battles between the mega-tech players such as Google, Facebook and Twitter. However, the reality is they are all in the same business. Namely, collecting signals from the market. Call it big data, analytics, search, social, implicit, explicit, predictive – in plain English these companies pick up digital signals that consumers (aka people) send out about themselves and their lives and provide tools to target messages against those signals. It’s a vast market powered by Moore’s Law driven groovyware that is now morphing into huge markets for attention data – otherwise known as programmatic.

Last week I was running a digital strategy session in the beautiful city of Zagreb for the splendid folk at HURA. It was interesting to hear that many of the issues being faced in Croatia are similar to those in other markets. For instance, one agency man told me that the problem they have is bringing the digital department in line with the rest of the agency, as it currently operates as an independent fiefdom that almost competes with the rest of the business, rather than supporting it. I think this is a good example of how many of the issues in this technological revolution through which we are living are not technical.